3/29/2004 @ 12:01AM

2004 Volvo S80 2.5T AWD

Overview

Last year, Volvo had a good year in the United States.

Sales of its new SUV, the XC90, were brisk, with some 35,000 units sold–pretty much as many as Volvo could build left showrooms.

Overall, Volvo saw a 21% increase in unit sales in 2003. And the future looks even brighter.
Ford
, the owner of Volvo, is harnessing key Volvo safety technologies throughout the company.
Peter
Horbury
Peter Horbury
, who designed the smart-looking XC90 while at Volvo, has now been promoted to executive director of design for all of Ford’s North American brands.

This is important. When Volvo was bought by Ford (in 1999), there was grave fear that Ford would gut the brand and its heritage, selling rebadged Fords as Volvos. Now it seems that there will be “trickle-up” instead: Volvo’s sharp design, excellent safety engineering and strong build quality will influence everything Ford does.

And along with another less-heralded brand, Mazda (also under the Ford umbrella), which will lead Ford to better engines and mechanical know-how (especially in small cars), Ford seems to be taking the approach that what it can learn from its subsidiaries will only better its own identity while simultaneously enhancing the credibility and individuality of its satellite companies.

By immense contrast, look at what
General Motors
is doing with its own Swedish carmaker, Saab. Soon GM will be selling a rebadged Subaru WRX (Subaru is a GM affiliate) as the new Saab 9-2. The car will get different sheet metal and an altered interior from the Impreza-based sedan, but if you look under the hood you’ll see a Subaru engine, and everywhere else you look you’ll see Subaru, not Saab parts. Worse, fairly soon a rebadged Chevy Trailblazer will debut as the Saab 9-7x; this vehicle, too, will only be a Saab cosmetically, and as it won’t be turbocharged or based on unibody architecture, the DNA of this vehicle will be even further removed from the heritage of what Saab represents to most of the brand’s followers.

In any case, what does all this badge-swapping and brand cross-dressing have to do with the cost of herring in Stockholm? Or rather, with the subject of this review, the $37,200 Volvo S80 2.5T AWD?

Actually, quite a lot.

Volvo has managed to maintain a high level of independence from Ford and also from brands within Ford’s portfolio that might actually be rivals when it comes to competing for buyers (Jaguar, Lincoln, Land Rover). In general this is likely a good thing. But when it comes to cars like the S80, Volvo could use some advice–or at least a good prodding–from Ford’s other luxury divisions.

Actually, Volvo needs that not only with this car, but with several others as well. What Jaguar and Land Rover know, Volvo needs to learn. How so? You’ll have to continue reading to understand.

From The Driver’s Seat

The “grand plan” for Volvo is pretty cool, actually. The goal is for Volvo to continue courting younger, well-to-do parents who have taken to the XC90. Volvo plans to not only continue selling safety, but also sportiness and style. The forthcoming S40 is now getting ads showcasing its rally-car-ability rather than the ease with which you can attach baby seats.

There’s just one problem–only the XC90, thus far, has the kind of class-leading style and performance to support a real Volvo image makeover. Sure, the recently-released new S60R and V70R focus on intense performance, but these are limited-edition cars; they don’t do for Volvo what Subaru’s WRX has done for that otherwise family-oriented badge.

You can expect Volvo to improve upon the formula soon, when the S40 and V40 start to sell in earnest. These cars, based on a shared platform with Mazda’s new 3 (and a Ford Focus we won’t be getting here for a while here but which will sell in Europe) are expected to be far tauter, better-handling machines. Just as important, however, is that these cars will get improved design both inside and out.

The problem is that now Volvo will have bookends that compete well on style and performance–the S40/V40 and the XC90–but in the middle, with the S60 and S80, the brand really needs upgrading. Here sales are faltering–overall Volvo car sales (discounting the XC90) fell 7% last year in this country.

And you can see why when you climb behind the wheel of the S80 we tested recently. To put it bluntly, the car is far too cramped to compete against the list of cars Volvo claims as its competitive set–the Mercedes Benz E-Class, BMW 5 and 7 series, Audi A6, and Cadillac‘s Seville and DeVille.

Further, given that front-seat legroom is only on par with that of the smaller, less-expensive S60 sedan–and rear-seat legroom is only a tad better in the S80 than in the S60–this car really isn’t even very competitive against the smaller Cadillac CTS, Infiniti G35, or Lexus ES330.

Of course Volvo marketers would prefer you cross-shop the S80 against the E-Class Mercedes and 5 series BMW as well as the Audi A6, because then the $37,200 price tag will seem like a bargain.

This argument doesn’t quite fly, however, because the interior quality and design just isn’t that luxe–you get what you pay for–and the handling can’t touch what you get in any of those Autobahn burners.

Sadly, nor can the S80 keep pace with the excellent CTS or Infiniti G35.

Okay, so is it as plush as the Lexus ES? Nope, it’s not. Rather, the ride highlights bumps in the road but the suspension still feels loose; the steering is overly light and lacking a strong on-center feel. Drive into a turn with even a little heat and you’ll experience pronounced chassis roll.

And the all-wheel-drive system on this car? It has a few flaws as well. The S80 is, at base, a front-wheel-drive vehicle. And these are still the default drive wheels, meaning that you can experience torque steer on takeoff or even under hard acceleration exiting a turn. Part of the problem is that this car gets a 2.5-liter, turbocharged, five-cylinder motor that hits its peak torque at only 1,500 rpm. That’s great for quick acceleration, but it’s not so splendid when you’re trying to eliminate driveline interference with steering. Turbocharging only enhances the effect, since smaller turbocharged motors have a tendency to hit their acceleration peak quickly, sending all their power through the wheels in quick bursts.

Comparing this all-wheel-drive system to the one in the new Infiniti G35 with all-wheel-drive, or to the setup in the E-Class, highlights the fact that those cars start with rear-wheel drive, so torque steer simply never occurs. The Audi A6 is more likely to exhibit torque steer, but Audi’s done a better job than Volvo at managing when and how power is swapped between wheels.

Finally, we come to that five-cylinder engine. There’s enough juice here, with brisk acceleration always on tap. But uneven-cylinder engines always feel a bit coarse and this one is no different. There’s no pleasing whir from the mechanism. It works, but it’s not the kind of engine that will make you want to open it up just to hear it roar.

Should You Buy This Car?

The S80 has been around since 1998. That explains a lot.

In the intervening years mid-size sports sedans have gotten a lot better at being both good-handling road cars that aren’t punishing, and also being luxurious, rather than merely having the trappings of luxury. The distinction there isn’t at all fine, by the way–a luxury car should feel bespoke, as if inside and out its features were designed for this particular car, for this particular customer.

Also, this category has grown in two ways: there are more models, and the cars that are selling well (discounting BMW’s 3 series, which always sells well) are larger than they were back in 1998.

None of this bodes well for the S80. It’s an older chassis and it feels that way, its interior isn’t special, or especially spacious, and it doesn’t compete well on price with the cars it’s actually competing with for customers. This, by the way, is the problem with Jaguar X-Type, a car that’s also got all-wheel-drive and is sized too small for its price. But at least in the case of Jaguar, people will pay more for the badge.

And Volvo could certainly learn more about prestige from the likes of Jaguar and Land Rover. The latter truly delivers on off-roading prowess and the latest Range Rover may have the most exclusive cockpit this side of a Bentley.

True, Volvo is trying to be more sporty than luxurious–and safer than anything else on the road. But that’s a point to straddle, especially since brands like BMW have shown that luxury and performance aren’t mutually exclusive, and Mercedes has done a damn fine job of showing that safety, performance, and luxury can all be rolled into one (at least in some of their cars).

All of which has us thinking that better flagship Volvos are sure to come–because right now the S80 is only half the car it needs to be to compete in this very tough segment.